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On this J-10C fighter, PL-10 air-to-air missiles hang from the outboard wing pylons and long-range PL-15s from the inboards. (Image Credit: Chinese Internet) An operational People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Chengdu J-10C fighter has been seen carrying pairs of PL-10 and PL-15 air-to-air missiles (AAMs) for the first time. They are the PLAAF’s next-generation short-range and long-range AAMs, respectively. According to Chinese reports, their performance is equivalent or superior to that of their Western counterparts. Developed by the 607 Institute, the PL-15 (Pi Li or Thunderbolt), is China’s latest beyond-visual-range air-to air missile (BVRAAM). It achieved a first firing...

Turkish warplanes have reportedly shot down a Russian military aircraft on the border with Syria. Russia's Interfax news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying that a Su-24 had crashed in northern Syria, and that its two pilots had ejected.

A warplane crashed in Syria's northwestern Turkmen town of Bayirbucak near Turkey’s border on Tuesday, Turkish security sources said. It remains unclear to which country the aircraft belongs to. Turkish Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu briefed Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu following the crash. According to a media outlet’s footage of the downed aircraft, the pilots could be seen ejecting safely before the aircraft hit the ground in a huge of plume of smoke.

Turkish F-16 fighter jets shot down a war plane of unknown origin on Tuesday after it violated Turkish air space close to the Syrian border and ignored warnings, a Turkish military official told Reuters.

The Pentagon sank $400 billion into the F-35 stealth jet—only to have it come up way short. So they’re working on a secret new bomber to handle the job instead. Government officials and aerospace executives have met in secret. Engineers have drawn up blueprints, crafted components, and assembled prototypes, all under strict confidentiality agreements. Lobbyists are prowling the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, smiling, shaking hands, exerting influence. For the first time in more than three decades, the Pentagon and America’s aerospace industry are uniting to build a big, expensive, high-tech stealth bomber. And that’s a huge deal for...

A senior U.S. military intelligence official confirmed that China will be capable of deploying an advanced fifth generation fighter comparable to the U.S. F-22 within eight years, years ahead of previous Pentagon assessments. “We're anticipating China to have a fifth-generation fighter ... operational right around 2018," said Wayne Ulman of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. He made the comments before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on May 20. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, in defending his decision to end production of the F-22, stated last year that China "is projected to have no fifth-generation aircraft by...

The price tag for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has increased by more than 50 percent, crossing a threshold that will force Pentagon officials to justify the need for the program to Congress, Pentagon officials told a Senate panel on Thursday. The price for one F-35 fighter jet in 2001 was estimated to be $50 million. Now the price tag has risen to between $80 million and $95 million per plane, calculated in 2002 constant dollars. In today’s dollars, one aircraft would cost an average of $112 million, according to Michael Sullivan, the director of the acquisition team at...

The Joint Strike Fighter next generation warplane for US and allied forces may end up costing more than 100 million dollars per plane, a Pentagon official told Congress Thursday. This would mean the final cost would be double the initial estimate when the contract was awarded in 2001 for the JSF, the costliest weapons program to date for the Pentagon. Christine Fox, director of the Defense Department's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "the current program estimate based on jet two numbers will be somewhere between 80 and 95 million dollars in constant...

When there is more than $10 billion in weapons sales at stake, marketing can trump diplomacy during NATO air combat training. NATO pilots routinely participate in war games with its members, during which flights of "red team" airplanes play the opposition and square off against NATO pilots in realistic encounters. Recently, a squadron of pilots of the Spanish air force flew Eurofighter Typhoons, a multirole airplane with good dogfighting abilities, in mock combat against U.S. Air Force F-15s in the skies around Gando Air Base, Gran Canaria. The engagements, judging by a press release issued by Eurofighter, did not go...

During recent exercises, NATO Air Forces carried out several training combat engagements known as DACT, Dissimilar Aircraft Combat Training, involving different types of aircraft. In this situation, where the air dominance is a matter, the Eurofighter Typhoons turned out to be the leading air-to-air fighter jets. Once again, the outstanding performance of the Eurofighter Typhoon was evident in a dogfight simulation. The 111 Squadron of the Spanish Air Force as well as the 493rd Squadron of the U.S. Air Force were deployed for training in Gando Air Base, Gran Canaria. The Spanish Squadron attended the training with a total of...

A Russian military delegation is inspecting airfields before Moscow sends 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to bolster Lebanon's almost non-existent air force, a challenge to U.S. efforts to build up the Mediterranean country's state institutions to counter Hezbollah. Under a deal announced in December by Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr during a visit to Moscow, Russia will provide the MiG-29s from its air force inventory free of charge, including upgrades, under a military assistance program. The Americans have supplied second- and third-hand military equipment including M-60A3 main battle tanks (ex-Jordanian) and M-198 155mm artillery guns, worth $400 million to Lebanon since...

Malaysia admitted that it is getting rid of its MiG-29 fighters because the aircraft are too expensive to maintain. It costs about $5 million a year, per aircraft, to keep them in flying condition. Three years ago, Malaysia bought two more MiG-29s, in addition to the 18 it got in the 1990s. Two of those were lost due to accidents. Malaysia has since ordered 18 Su-30 fighters, and will apparently order more to replace the MiG-29s. Malaysia also bought eight F-18Ds in the 1990s, and is getting rid of those as well. Russia has offered better prices on maintenance contracts...

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US WARPLANE FORCED TO LAND IN IRAN.

North Korea testing South with jet fighters: report Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:07pm EDT By Jon Herskovitz SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean jet fighters have sortied close South Korea's airspace at least 10 times since conservative president Lee Myung-bak took office last month, prompting Seoul to scramble its own planes in response, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday The flights add to a list of provocative gestures from the North since Lee's government warned Pyongyang that if it wants to keep receiving aid, it should improve human rights, abide by an international nuclear deal and start returning the more...

N Korea Fighter Jets Flew Record Number Of Missions Last Mo-AFP SEOUL (AFP)--North Korea's fighter jets flew a record number of daily missions during exercises last month despite a nationwide shortage of fuel, experts said Thursday. The jets staged more than 100 missions on a single day in January, breaking a 1995 record for daily sorties, according to a military official quoted by Yonhap news agency. He said the communist state, between the late 1990s and this winter, had refrained from major military drills - possibly because of a lack of fuel. "Despite its shortage of fuel, the North Korean...

China's Air Force equipped with domestic-made new-generation fighter Sources with the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) said Friday that it has been equipped with China-made new-generation fighter aircraft, the Jian-10, or Fighter-10. An Air Force officer told Xinhua the force's "overall battle effectiveness has been noticeably enhanced" after being equipped with the aircraft and through intensive drills and training. He disclosed that Jian-10 was capable of launching "precision attacks while hedgehopping and making long-distance assaults at altitude above 10,000 meters". Air fleet drills have also been successfully carried out, he said. The Information Office of the...

THE US Air Force will earmark billions of dollars in its next five year budget plan to help meet the Pentagon's goal to develop a new long-range bomber by 2018. The timetable was aggressive but achievable, given the new bomber would be likely to include technologies already under development by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US aerospace and defence industry, an official said today. "Substantial resources will be dedicated across the future years defence plan from 2008-2013 to get there," the official said.< "It will be billions." Defence analyst Loren Thompson of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute...

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